EARNCon 2026

Name: EARNCon 2026
Start: 2026-09-30T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-10-02T23:59:59-04:00
Location: The Mayflower Hotel

September 30 - October 2

General Registration Deadline Extended!

Register

3-day full conference tickets are now available at our general registration rate until September 8th.

Already registered? Don’t forget to reserve a room at the conference hotel. Reservations at the historic Mayflower Hotel can be made until September 8th (or until the room block is full): Book Here!

EARNCon 2026

September 30-October 2, 2026
Washington, D.C.

Annually hosted by EPI’s Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) and Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy (PREE), EARNCon brings together a rich community of researchers, policy advocates, labor leaders, and grassroots organizers committed to a worker-centered research and policy agenda that advances racial, gender, and economic justice at the state and local level.

EARNCon 2026 Agenda

This agenda is tentative. Session titles and times are subject to change.

Wednesday, September 30

12:00 – 6:00 PM: Registration
12:30 – 3:30 PM: Organizing Bootcamp: Building Power Outside the Statehouse and City Halls: How Organizing Can Boost Your Advocacy Game
12:30 – 3:30 PM: EARN Executive Directors Meeting
12:30 – 3:30 PM: Data Bootcamp: State of Working X Bootcamp
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Opening Plenary Session: Welcome to the DMV

Thursday, October 1

8:30 – 9:15 AM: Breakfast
9:15 – 10:15 AM: EPI Morning Plenary Session: What’s Really Driving the Affordability Problem—and What We Can Do About It
10:30 – 11:45 AM: Workshop Sessions
- EPI Workshop: The Impact of Technology on Labor Market Outcomes: It’s About Power
- Racial Justice and Worker Power in the Climate Transition
- PREE: The State of Women’s Work: Policy Choices, Power, and Participation
- Reimagining Economic Development: Building Equity and Healthier Communities Through Public Investment
- Understanding the Power of Storytelling: How it Can Make or Break Your Campaign
12:00 – 12:30 PM: Lunch
12:30 – 1:30 PM: EPI Afternoon Plenary Session: How Unions Affect Workers, the Economy, and Society
1:45 – 3:00 PM: Workshop Sessions
- EPI Workshop: A Strong Public Sector is Needed for Broadly-Shared Prosperity
- PREE: State and Local Remedies for Reclaiming Public Health Insurance
- Reworking the South: Uprooting Broken Systems for Workers in the South
- Building Worker Power in All 50 States
3:15 – 4:30 PM: Roundtable Conversations
5:30 PM: EPI 40th Anniversary Reception

Friday, October 2

8:00 – 9:15 AM: Breakfast
9:15 – 10:30 AM: Workshop Sessions
- Child Care Is a Public Good: Building Power for and with the Child Care Workforce
- New Frontiers in the Fight for Public Education
- Fighting Fascism with Numbers: Using Research to Combat ICE Terror and Advance Immigrant Justice
- Boom, Backlash, Bargaining Chip? How Advocates Can Evaluate and Leverage Data Center Deals
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM: Workshop Sessions
- Strategies for Centering Black Children and Families in Our Work: Lessons from the ECOSYS project
- Advancing Progressive Workforce Development: Case Studies with a Record of Success
- Tax the Rich, Invest in Communities: A Movement Spreading Across America
- PREE: States Don’t Have to Choose Between Economic Security and Racial Equity
12:15 – 12:45 PM: Lunch
12:45 – 2:00 PM: Closing Plenary Session: Counting Every Voice: Advancing Racial, Gender, and Economic Justice Through Good Public Data

About This Year’s Conference

EARNCon 2026 will bring state and local movement leaders together in the nation’s capital at a moment when our country is marking its 250th anniversary but its core values and institutions are in deep crisis. This year’s conference will celebrate our conviction that the country will never achieve the highest ideals of its founding until we truly center people, equity, and collective action.

Together, we will affirm our collective commitment to racial and gender equity, economic justice, and democracy, while sharpening state policy and organizing strategies that deliver an economy that works for all. With discussions on topics such as strengthening unions and workplace protections, building and sustaining robust public programs that safeguard economic security, and how community-labor organizing can drive local policy change, EARNCon 2026 will be a place to learn, inspire, and unite against current threats while—from the ground up—setting a clear course towards a more perfect union.

Celebrating EPI at 40

During EARNCon 2026, we are celebrating Economic Policy Institute’s 40 years as the working people’s think tank. Thursday, October 1st will include workshops and two plenaries followed by a reception reflecting four decades of the cutting-edge research centering the lives of working people.

Your purchase of a 3-day EARNCon ticket or a Thursday-only ticket includes all EPI40 sessions and the evening event. If you would like to purchase a ticket to the EPI40 reception only, please visit the EPI40 Reception information page.

Hotel Information

Already registered? Don’t forget to reserve a room at the conference hotel. Reservations for the Mayflower Hotel can be made until September 8th (or until the room block is full): Book Here!

Our EARNCon 2026 room block at the historic Mayflower Hotel includes an exclusive conference rate. We encourage you to book your room as soon as possible to make sure you’ll be able to stay at the conference hotel.

The Mayflower Hotel has been a fixture in Washington, D.C. since 1925. Known as “Washington’s second-best address,” the hotel combines historic grandeur with modern comforts and has long been a gathering place for visitors, leaders, and events in the city. We’re excited to bring the EARN community together in a place with such a rich connection to Washington’s history.

EARN Member Organizations

Executive Directors should have received specific EARN Group registration information. Please reach out if your team has not received it.

Questions?

If you have any questions please email [email protected].

Cancellation / Refund Policy: Cancellation and refund requests may be made by reaching out to [email protected]. Refund requests received on or before August 31, 2026, are eligible for a refund, minus applicable processing fees.